R2v3 does not mention artificial intelligence, and it does not need to. Its core requirements and appendices already demand that the decisions a facility makes about categorization, sanitization, testing and downstream disposition be controlled, recorded and verifiable, and that the systems supporting those decisions be managed. When a person makes the decision, the procedure names the person and the training record backs it up. When a model makes or proposes the decision, an R2 auditor is entitled to ask how you know it is right, what happens when it is wrong, and who is accountable. Those are ISO 42001's questions in R2v3's language.
For most facilities the sensible answer is to put AI controls inside the management systems they already run: a documented intended use for each tool, a validation or verification record proportionate to what it decides, a named person who reviews the tool's output before it becomes a disposition or a certificate of sanitization, change control for model updates, and periodic checks that the tool still performs as it did when you accepted it. That is a few procedures and a few records, not a new certificate, and it fits inside the ISO 9001 or RIOS system an Appendix C facility already maintains.
ISO 42001 certification itself becomes worth considering in two situations. The first is when AI is doing enough of the deciding that a customer, an insurer or the certification body wants an independent standard behind it rather than your own procedure. The second is when your customers ask. Hyperscalers, OEMs and large enterprises have started writing AI governance into vendor questionnaires, and an ITAD vendor that handles their data and their equipment is exactly the kind of supplier they ask. If that request arrives, an R2v3 facility with an ISO 9001 system is well placed, because ISO 42001 shares the same structure. We explain what carries over in ISO 42001 for ISO 9001 certified companies.
